


I'm here

by heyyoureokay



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Abduction, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Rescue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 15:07:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20293474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyyoureokay/pseuds/heyyoureokay
Summary: “Shh, shhh,” Reid murmurs. “We got him. He can’t hurt you again. It’s going to be alright.”'That’s my line,' JJ thinks, a little wildly.





	I'm here

It feels like her memory is clicking in and out, like single frames of film with long gaps in between. Like she’s watching what’s happening to her through an old View-Master, tucked away in some dusty closet. 

_ He’s gripping her face with one hand and she can feel the bruises blossoming under his fingers and she can’t remember who he is and — _

_ His breath is rotten and she wants to recoil but she can’t move — can’t feel her arms — and she knows that should worry her but the reel clicks forward again and — _

_ The knife clatters to the floor in front of her and his hand is off her face and distantly she can feel herself gasping for air and — _

_There’s people all around her and someone’s saying _pressure on her ribcage_ and _on three _and_ _then she’s being lifted by the waist and —_

JJ kicks out blindly, fighting wildly; she won’t let him touch her again. Her foot connects and someone grunts, but the arms around her waist don’t let go.

Something snaps and the chains binding her by the wrists to the ceiling come undone. The pain comes back to her in a rush as she’s lowered gently — _ gently? _ — to the floor. She’s so dizzy, and it’s so hard to think. It isn’t going to matter whether or not she’ll _ let _ him touch her again. She was helpless then and helpless now, and she can’t breathe, and it _ hurts _, and then Spencer appears above her. 

_ Spencer? _

His hair is greasy, his shirt wrinkled, and there are dark circles under his eyes. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days, looks like he did after Gideon left, and his eyes are frantic as he catalogues her injuries.

_ Why is he so worried? _

_ Don’t worry, Spence, it’s okay, _she wants to say, but the words catch in her throat and all she manages is a hazy “S-Spen...?” 

“Yeah, JJ,” he says, and forces a little smile for her. “Hey. It’s me. I’m here. We’re all here.” 

One of his hands is tangled in her hair, keeping her head from the hard concrete floor. 

She tries to speak again. She knows she should tell him about the man — she doesn’t know where he is, and they should clear the room. She has to watch Reid’s back, can’t let him go off on his own, not again. 

“He—” 

“Shh, shhh,” Reid murmurs. “We got him. He can’t hurt you again. It’s going to be alright.” 

He’s using the gentle, deliberate voice she’s heard him use a thousand times with victims, the one she taught him how to access at work.

_ That’s my line, _JJ thinks, a little wildly. 

She tries to reach out for him but her arms hurt so badly. Immediately Spencer catches her aborted movement, though, and presses his large hand to hers, his clever fingers shaking as he wraps both of his hands around her own. Spencer’s hands are covered in blood and she doesn’t understand _ why _even though she knows she should. 

Suddenly there’s more people clustered in her field of vision, men she doesn’t know, and each of them feels indistinguishable to the man who had — _ who — where did he — _

Spencer moves back, urgently explaining something to one of the men out of her line of vision as the whirl of movement and sound continues around her. She hears the words, but their meaning doesn’t hold in her frantic brain. 

_ Head injury — possible spinal cord injury — blood loss — hypoxia — _

JJ struggles and hands are everywhere, holding her down, and there’s something around her neck and something that smells like new plastic over her mouth and she can’t _ move, where is Spence, can’t leave him — _

A sharp pinch, a strange taste, and little black spots start to encroach on her vision. She tries to fight off her impending unconsciousness until Spencer's face appears above her again. 

She hears him say "I'm here, JJ. I'm not going anywhere," as finally her eyes close and it all _stops. _


End file.
